VP nominee Harris: Minnesotans know U.S. faces 'inflection point'

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(FOX 9) - Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, in her first campaign event aimed directly at Minnesota, said Wednesday that voters here understand there's "a fight for the soul of our nation" after the death of George Floyd, civil unrest and the slow-burn of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Our country is at an inflection point," Harris said on a virtual roundtable with Minnesota Democratic officials. "No one knows this better than Minnesotans."

Harris accused President Donald Trump of having "no real plan" for reopening schools safely, and promoted running mate Joe Biden's school reopening plan. Biden's plan calls for spending tens of billions of dollars to improve ventilation and cleaning at schools, double the number of health and psychological staff, and reduce class sizes.

Harris's event came on the same day that Trump's campaign launched a new television ad in Minnesota, accusing Biden of having a "weak response" to this spring's rioting in Minneapolis.

The Biden campaign is becoming increasingly visible in Minnesota, a state that Democratic presidential candidates have won every year since 1972 but is a swing state this year after Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have held frequent in-person campaign events in Minnesota, and senior advisors said the campaign will spend $14 million on TV ads here between now and Election Day.

"We would not be fighting in Minnesota if we didn’t believe we could win," Steve Cortes, a senior advisor for the Trump campaign, said in an interview. "But of course, the fact that we are fighting there does compel and force the hand of the other side to engage."

Trump's campaign has already reserved nearly $9 million of time in the Minneapolis-St. Paul television market through Election Day, filings with the Federal Communications Commission indicate. In comparison, Biden's campaign has reserved about $2 million in time over the same period.

Both campaigns have also booked time -- though at far less cost -- in the Duluth and Rochester TV markets.

Harris's appearance at Wednesday's virtual roundtable was brief: she gave seven minutes of prepared remarks before leaving the call. She did not take questions from reporters before leaving.

She rattled off a series of Minnesota-specific statistics about school reopenings, noting that teachers were nervous and parents were trying to juggle working from home with helping their children with schoolwork. Harris said 330,000 Minnesotans lack internet in their homes, making distance learning nearly impossible.

"Donald Trump is offering no real plan to help schools reopen safely and he’s refusing to do the work of getting the virus under control. His administration is attempting to bully schools into reopening without the support they need," Harris said. "It's clear that children's safety is the last thing on Donald Trump's mind."

The Trump campaign said Harris's event was an attempt by the Biden campaign to play defense in Minnesota.

"Our belief is that the Trump campaign and the 'America First' movement fundamentally changed the electoral map, and the upper Midwest is very much in play," Cortes said.